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Top 10 tips; Common Web Design Mistakes Made by New Web-Designers and How to Avoid Them

By Michelle Timothy

Web page design tips; Lately there has been a rush to arm everyone online with an 'Easy to use' HTML editor. These editors are getting easier and easier to use, nowadays anyone with a pulse can be a web designer. As a result I've seen a lot of disturbing web page designs posing as professional jobs on the internet. I have decided to list the worst offenses in this short :) article on the top 10 web page design tips to avoid bad web design. If you prefer you can also Learn good design by looking at bad design.

  1. Using Frames Although some designers can pull it off and make it work, if you are new to designing web pages avoid them, they are more trouble than they are good. Frames present a number of problems for the professional web site, number one of which is linking problems. You cannot just copy the URL in your browser and make a hyperlink to it. The person who clicks on that link will not get the same view you intended.


  2. Using Gaudy color combinations I always suggest to the 'chromatically challenged' designer ... find an example in real life and use the same color combinations. Try not to put more than 2 dark or rich colors together! Use lighter or darker shades of your color choice to supplement the design.


  3. Flashy banners and scrolling marquee text A web page is supposed to be interactive not distracting or disturbing. Things that jump, flash or dance incessantly in the peripheral of your visitor's vision, is distracting enough to make them lose focus on your web page. Text should never scroll anywhere on the page or browser. Leave the flashing animated graphics for the casino sites. The only instance I have seen of scrolling text is for news tickers.


  4. Flash intros In most cases a flash intro is simply pretentious. It gives very little information to the user. Flash can be used very effectively for tutorials and seminars. But Flash pages do not have a source that search engines can 'read' so flash pages do not get indexed in search engines and do not rank well. Keep in mind that your visitor came to your web site to get information, not to be entertained. Which brings me to the few web sites that I feel can pull off a flash intro 100% of the time: Entertainment web pages like casinos, music sites and Film web sites etc. Stay with the simple text format if you are selling anything else.


  5. Always use tables Tables frame your design. They provide an unseen skeleton for your design layout. You can separate different areas of your web page like a newspaper using frames. If you do not use frames, your design will likely run on forever to the right of the screen. You are also limited to vertical positioning of text and web elements on the page. You can only position things on top of or underneath each other. to the left.


  6. Never have a pop-up or pop-under that spawns other pop-ups or pop-unders! There is simply nothing more annoying than pop-ups that never end. Make sure that if you have a pop-up, under or over that the page that is loading does not have an exit or entry pop up as well! It will bog down the visitor's connection and cause slower computers and connections to freeze. If your visitor wants to end their session they should not be subjected to a cascade of pop-ups when closing the browser window and trying to leave your web site.


  7. Abandoned or orphaned web pages Make sure all of your web pages have links back to your main web page. Visitors can enter your site from any of your pages that are listed with search engines or indexed on someone else's site; there should always be a neat little way back home from each page.


  8. Web pages that scroll forever If you have a lot to say break it up! Reading on a computer is hard enough without huge blocks of text mashed together or long web pages that attempt to say everything. Create sub headings to break up the text and give the user a chance to skim the page and find the section they want to read.


  9. Links that are not blue or underlined don't assume that everyone is internet savvy and knows all about cool design tricks. The standard for links are blue for unvisited links and dark red for visited links. Links also usually have an underline to help distinguish them from the rest of the text. This means that when someone scans your page as most surfers do (you didn't think they actually read it did you?), the reference links will stand out and call attention to them selves. If your links are not standard (Standard meaning at a minimum they should be underlined) then you will probably lose a lot of potential click throughs. Yeah it is cute to have those cool effects on your links but you can't cash cute web pages at the bank. Do what works and Don't leave anything up to the visitor's interpretation.


  10. Underlined words that are not links. Try to stay away from tricking your visitors and making them feel foolish. Try not to underline any words that are not links. Most surfers are drawn to underlined words, because we have been conditioned to believe that underlined words are links that can lead us to more information. When your potential customer moves their mouse to your underlined word and the pointer does not change to a finger they feel foolish. If you are trying to sell something to your visitors try not to annoy them before you ask for the sale. If yu need to draw attention to a phrase instead of underline you can emphasize words with *asterisks*, bold face, italics, enlarged font size or another color (But stay away from the underline). ***Or use all four!***

    Ok so I lied I started out with 10 and then I realized this was an epidemic, I needed to include 10 more!


  11. Audio that is set to auto play on page load. Nothing is more startling. Try to make your audio opt in only. That means you should let your customers choose if they want to play your audio or not. Display your audio option prominently, tell them what they will hear and how long the message is, if it's music the same rule applies. I have a feeling that in a few short years we will see a committee formed to ban opt-out audio on web pages just like we see now for emailed spam.


  12. Colored text on textured or colored backgrounds. Generally it is easiest to read black letters on a white background. Text on a textured background tends to be difficult to read. Try to make it easy for your visitor to read your text because reading on a monitor is hard enough on the eyes.


  13. Poor spelling and grammar. With the advent of spell check there is no need for this. Misspellings and grammatical errors make you look unprofessional and less than scrupulous. Take the time to check the spelling on your document before you show it to the public.


  14. Music. I have a real problem with music anywhere except on myspace type home pages or on the website of a musician or a band. If you are trying to look professional, low grade midi files do not help your image. Leave the music for elevators and calls on hold. There is no need for it on your web site or sales page. I personally cannot read when I am distracted by music, especially really bad music.

    Imagine this... the computer your visitor is viewing your web page on is in their home, probably in a personal space that they feel very familiar with... it is a very intimate experience. This is what makes spam such a big deal. You are violating your right to be there when you do something startling.

    At the very least if you are gonna do it anyway no matter what I say, make sure you monitor visitor session times and see if it increases or decreases. And display the OFF button very prominently at the top of the page!


  15. Multi colored text. I have never seen an example of this that didn't look very comical, juvenile and down right distracting. If your site is for kids or for humor this might work but if you are selling something and want to be taken seriously you should stick to a solid colors and any large blocks of text should always be black on white. Save the colors for emphasis on keywords and headlines and even then use them sparingly!

  16. Mouse trails. These are really cute and fun but they have no place on a professional web site. I have seen some mouse trails that have large graphics that hide text and even prevent you from clicking on the links. I have used them to entertain my family when I made a family photo album online but I do not use them anywhere else.


  17. Too many banners. Carefully designed and carefully placed banners still get impressions and clicks but that rate is steadily declining. You'll receive much higher click throughs with text ads. Too many banners on one page looks very unprofessional and it can be very distracting if they are all animated too.


  18. Frame headers that cut my viewing space in half. I have a small monitor 15" and my browser is loaded with toolbars. That leaves a small amount of viewing space for web pages. When I encounter a web site that has a frame header my viewing space id further cut by the size of the header. A frame header is essentially a second web page on your screen showing simultaneously with the main web page that you cannot control. You cannot close it, resize it or move it. See my #1 web designing mistake for other reasons why frames are not a good idea.


  19. Wide web pages that scroll left or right. Design your pages to be flexible on all monitors. If possible use tables to contain your text and images so that they do not run on to the right forever. It is hard to read a web page when half of your text is not on the screen.


  20. Large slow loading graphics. Nothing kills traffic quite like a page that loads slowly because of large graphic files. make sure your images are optimized for the web jpg and gif files are best for smaller web files. High resolution pictures are not internet friendly. If your page loads slowly chances are no one will wait around for it to finish loading.